Among The Stars
by InnerFlame7
Summary: A lieutenant whose dreams are haunted by death, is tasked with a mission to secure a mysteries crystal. But tensions are rising, the peace is crumbling and in times like these, things are rarely what they seem. AU: Rated M for swearing and violence.
1. Chapter 1: A bad dream

Before the reading starts there's a few things i would like to say.

One, this is the first actual story I've ever written so any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Secondly, english is not my first language and I have no beta so i apologise in advance for any mistakes that might be found within.

Hope you enjoy

Chapter 1

A bad dream

The silence was the strangest part.

It was not a comfortable silence no, it felt oppressive, like a fog clinging to everything it touched.

I was standing in what looked like a street, small one storey buildings on each side split by a muddy dirt road.

The place was a mess, it looked like someone dropped a bomb in the middle of the street. Mangled pieces of metal littered the ground, and most of the houses were falling apart.

It looked like a warzone.

It was dark, the only source of light being the crescent moon and the few street lamps that wasn't blasted to bits. It would almost have been better if they weren't there at all, the limited light gave it all a sinister feel.

Part of me was screaming that i had been here before, that something was wrong. I started walking towards a relatively unharmed building on my right. The silence was unnatural, i couldn't even hear my own footsteps, even though the street was covered in shards of broken metal and glass.

Once i got closer i saw the door had been broken down, torn of its hinges, part of the wall with it. "Something big came through here" i said to myself, something _very_ big.

I took a step inside, i probably shouldn't have, but everything seemed so strange, so...unreal. The wall was covered in bullet holes and the room had blood splattered on the walls and part of the ceiling. No bodies though, somehow that made it all worse.

"Griffin..."

I spun around faster than I thought possible, hand moving for the gun at my belt only to find it wasn't there.

I didn't dare breath, I had heard the voice before, no idea when, but i recognized it.

It came from all around, yet nowhere at the same time; my eyes scanned the room again. That's when I noticed it, the blood was still fresh, dripping of the walls.

I ran out into the street, almost stumbling across the mangled piece of metal that was once a door, barely noticing it was covered in deep scratching marks.

And stopped dead in my tracks.

The street was filled with bodies, the silence was deafening.

Shell casings ware everywhere, some still smoking, like they were just fired a few seconds ago.

Bodies of marines, some were missing limbs, others had massive scratch marks covering their armour. Blood was still flowing from the wounds, forming small rivers of red that ran down the street.

I shakily took a few steps towards the nearest marine, the armour had a massive bloody gash across the chest area, it looked like someone slashed through the armour.

"That's impossible..." I might not be an expert in military gear, but it didn't take a genius to know, that breaking through the ceramic plating on that armour was no easy task.

Something was very wrong.

"Griffin..."

There it was again, still sounding like it was coming from everyone were at once, and I still couldn't see the source, nothing but broken bodies and burning buildings.

"The fuck is going on here" I whispered to myself, my breath was getting shaky, too many questions and too few answers.

A pressure was starting to build on my mind, like someone was squishing my head. All I could hear, was a faint buzzing sound like that of insects, it was faint, but it was there. Just at the edge of my mind.

I needed to get out of here.

Clang! My head snapped up, something moved. It sounded like a piece of metal clattering. Everything fell silent. The buzzing was gone, but the pressure was only building up, quickly moving towards the unbearable.

Footsteps, something was moving. unlike the voice, this sounded like this was coming from just down the street. It sounded like several people walking, but I couldn't be sure.

I stared down the street, the footsteps were getting closer. As the figure became visible, my breath caught in my throat. It wasn't several people, my first thought was that it was a big dog, but that thought was quickly dismissed as it took a few more steps into the light of a street lamp.

It was some kind of creature, four legs, a lithe body littered with spikes and two scythe like limps protruding from its back. As i made eye contact with the glowing orange eyes the buzzing sound returned with a vengeance, forcing me to cower my ears.

My head felt like it was about to explode.

"You can't run forever..."

I was on my knees, couldn't even remember it happening. The _thing_ was standing right before me, only a few centimeters away from my face. I hadn't even seen it move. black dots danced across my vision, I could feel myself starting to fall.

I woke with a scream, my breathing was erratic, my mind was a jumbled mess. It took me a few minutes before the world stopped spinning and i saw were I was.

I was in my room, Marginis station.

I slowly sat up, just realizing that my bed sheets were soaked with sweat.

I Put my head in my hands, taking several deep breaths.

"It was just a dream...it was just a dream" I wasn't even sure if I believed it myself. It felt so real, I still remembered everything, the bloody corpses the creature, the voice...

I took another deep breath before I looked at the clock, 04:38, I sighed to myself. "Might as well get up".

I stood up, still slightly shaking and looked around my room, it wasn't much, a bed in the corner with a small table a television and a private bathroom. Walls were sleek and grey, and the floor was made of light brown wood. It was admittedly one of the better rooms I'd stayed in.

After taking the familiarity of the place I when for the closet. Took some clean clothes at random and went for a shower, telling myself a hot bath would do a world of good.

It didn't, while It was nice to get all the sweat washed off, the dream still lingered in the back of my mind. It wasn't the first time, I'd had similar dreams before, small variations here and there. But they were getting more and more frequent, more and more detailed.

But what was it about? The place reminded me of some of the colonies I visited years back when I still worked as an inspector. It was mainly the buildings, they were a commonly used model for most new colonies, cheap to produce, sturdy and could be assembled in a matter of hours.

The place itself was a mystery though, not to mention the creature and that fucking voice…and what was it it said? you can't run forever, "I didn't even know i was running in the first place..."

I sighed to myself.

This is going nowhere, maybe i should get myself a psychiatrist. "Huh" like i have time for that. I think a drink is what i really need. I put on my boots and went for the door, opened it with a swipe of my hand and took a few steps into the hallway.

The lights flickered for a bit before turning on. The hallway was empty, no surprises there considering the time. As i began to walk in the general direction of the bar i found my thought drifting back to the dream and then promptly stopped, i needed something else to think about. Anything i told myself, anything would do. I looked to the side as I passed a massive steel door, the station, that would do, think about the station.

From the start. It was old, build over 160 years ago during the war in heaven. what else? of course, context. Back then, Humanity was at war with two alien species known as the Protos and the Zerg. One technologically advanced the other a ravenous swarm of beasts. He'd never seen any of them alive, only read about them, so much was lost in that war.

The war though, the war itself was not forgotten

The Zerg launched a massive assault, fleets beyond anything imaginable, they were said to have consumed entire solar systems before anyone knew what was going on. It was sudden, there had been no time to prepare for an attack like that. Even their enemy, the Protos were caught off guard. After a week with billions of casualties the most unlikely alliance was formed, men and Protos working against a common enemy. United by the death of their people. The dominion, the ruling government at the time fell along with earth, the capital of humanity, the defences they managed to assemble were owerun in the matter of hours.

This is where it got interesting though, when the invasion began a group calling themselves the Drekar alliance began the construction of the biggest space station in the history of humanity. They assembled a fleet, setup system wide defence platforms, fortified the planets. They turned the system into and impenetrable fortress. They build the legendary flagship known as the Morningstar, fitted with a superweapond capable of cleaving a Leviathan battlecruiser in two within seacons, a weapon the has not been fired since the war. They dared the Zerg to attack with everything they had, to distrakt, to buy more time for the Protos to do their part.

The Protos had likewise taken everything they had and was headed for the heart of the swarm, to destroy them while they were vulnerable. Exactly what happened is a matter of debate, but what we do know is that the Protos attack was successful, half of humanity was wiped from the galaxy, the Zerg spread to the winds and the Protos disappeared without a trace.

There were no celebration, it was not a war decided by winners and losers, it was decided by who was still left standing when the smoke cleared.

Luckily, i thought to myself, that my military career has been less eventful. I was mainly called out to Exploration missions, and the occasional pirate hunt.

Oh and then there were the reports, how could I forget the bloody reports, those were the bane of my existence.

"Morning Griff" Someone said, stopped and blinked a few times. I had barely noticed i had arrived at the bar.

It should be said i rarely drank anything alcohol related, the only times i did was after a particularly stressful day or like now, after one of those bloody nightmares.

The fact that my job was as relaxing as anything could be, combined with the fact that the bartender was starting to recognise me was telling me more about my sleeping pattern than i cared to think about right now.

I forced a weak smile to my face and answered, "Morning..." dammit, what was his name again? something beginning wit think..."Denis?" i quesed.

"Dan" He said, he didn't even look surprised that i got his name wrong.

"Close enough" I said, not even trying to hide how tired i felt.

"So what do you want?"

I looked at some of the bottles standing around the desk before realizing, I didn't know what was in half of those. "Something to drink".

"Something to drink coming right up" He said, with a small hint of humor.

I found himself a table, running a hand through my hair. it was still a bit damp, a problem with having hair down to your shoulders I supposed, it took a while to dry.

deni- sory dan handed me a drink, funnily enough, he didn't say what it was and I didn't bother to ask him.

I quickly emptied the glas, the taste was horrific. The punishment for not being a bit more specific.

I ordered another glass of whatever it was, and sat quietly for some time, not thinking about anything in specific. Just enjoying the relatively silent bar.

"Griffin?" A voice sounded behind me.

"Morning Alex" I answered as i emptied another glass.

He walked over, pulled out a chair in front of me and sat down.

He was a short broad shouldered man about 1.70 height, short brown hair brown eyes and a well trimmed beard. But most importantly, he was my superior.

He looked at me like he expected me to say something. After a moment of silence, I sighed and decided to start.

"What are doing up this early?"

"Could ask you the same thing"

He answered, not even blinking. I suspected he already knew.

"Couldn't sleep"

I said after a few seconds, it was lame excuse and we both knew it. Not even sure why I bothered to hide it, he knew me too well.

"Nightmares again"

More a statement then a question.

"Yeah" I leaned back in the chair, resting my head on the headrest and closed my eyes for a moment. While talking in a tired tone.

"You know, I remember when they came once every few months...Now it feels like they're here a few times a week."

"You should get yourself a psychiatrist"

I couldn't help but smile a bit at that "Funny you say that, i told myself the same thing when i woke up this morning"

"But to answer your question" He paused, i opened an eye to look at him.

He pulled a folder out of his jacket and put it on the table in front of me.

"I got an urgent message no less than to hours ago, Telling me to assemble a team for an escort mission, along with that was a copy of this report."

I slowly picked up the folder and opened it, 14 pages. They seemed to contain information on everything from communication channels to military supplies.

"And since you didn't answer my calls i made a lucky guess to your whereabouts"

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that"

I quickly scanned through the pages, what caught my eye was the mentioning of the Northspire coalition, a massive group of outlaws, pirates and mercenaries, and some outlined numbers about communication channels.

And it was a mining colony named Awe located somewhere in the outer systems, it's primary purpose seemed to be the the harvest and refining of Ilmenite ore, nothing strange there. But, during an excavation they found...something?

I looked at Alex, making no attempt to hide the confusion on my face.

"About 20 hours ago, an excavation team on Awe discovered a crystal like material they named Dark glitter. The exact properties of this material is as of know, unknown but the scans are off the charts, preliminary readings are spitting out numbers that can't exist outside nuclear reactions."

"Your kidding me right?" I couldn't stop myself asking.

Alex cracked a half smile "I'm afraid not, unsurprisingly the Drekar Alliance command is quite interested in getting their hands on this stuff, so much in fact that two armed transports left the station just before i got here"

"Who wouldn't be?" I added "If the scans are right, a sample of that stuff could very well be worth a bloody fortune."

"Either way" He began "We suspect someone from the colony has leaked the information, communications have spiked on some of the known channels used by Northspire during the last few hours, and we expect them to try and intercept the transports"

I send him an understanding nod "I'll assemble the troops, when do we leave?"

"The escort leaves the station in two hours, captain has been notified"

"Roger that" We both got up, shock hands shortly before Parting ways.

Now very much awake I quickly made my way towards my room, I would need to call my secondary's and brief them, collect the troops and get ready for flight..."what a way to start the day" I whispered to myself while half running down the hall.


	2. Chapter 2: Majestic

Here it is, delay was due to some trouble writing conversations, I'm not entirely satisfied with the result but oh well.

If you have any questions about technical stuff that i fail to explain during the chapter, I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Hope you enjoy.

chapter 2

Majestic

* * *

The hours came and went, and it was time for me to get going, I holstered my pistol, a custom made 16 milometer , cost me a small fortune but it was well worth it, it was a sleek, short barreled grey pistol that had served well for many years.

I walked to the mirror, looking myself over to make sure things were sitting right. I had put on a clean gray uniform, steel tipped boots as well as an insignia and a handful of medals to inform of my rank and proof of active service. I wasn't a fan of boasting, but I liked the respect people showed when being around. Respect was a useful tool, especially in combat situations, it helped getting people to do what was necessary when told to.

I adjusted my sleeves slightly before nodding to myself, grabbing a folder and walking towards the door, I still had one more thing to do before I left for the docks. After closing the door and hearing the distinct *click* of the lock sliding in place, I made my way left down the corridor and after a short walk and a handful of turns I found myself in front of a small office, as every other time I was here I knocked on the door 3 times, "Come in" a woman called from the other side. I knocked again, this time she repeated herself only louder. I knocked again, however this time I just kept knocking. I started counting, one, two, three, four five... the door swung open and i found myself faced with a quite frustrated looking little sister.

"Morning Lilly" I said while giving her the most innocent smile I could manage. "Jesus Griff, you know the the door opens from the outside as well right?" I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as I entered the office, she was 5 years younger than me, hard working and pretty as hell.

Since she was a kid she'd had a bad tendency to work herself to the breaking point, always pushing herself to do better. I did my best to drag her off work sometimes, if only for a day or two to cool down.

As she went to stand near the desk I took a good look at her, bags under her eyes, hair slightly out of place and stiff posture..."You look like you haven't slept in days"

She looked down. Her desk was a mess, papers everywhere, she always cleans the place before she leaves. "You didn't leave work"

She gave a tired sigh and looked at me "You remember Orelikon right?"

I knew precisely who she was referring to, after all, I used their products on a weekly basis. "The weapons manufacturer" She nodded "Don't tell this to anyone okey?" I gave her a look that said 'are you really asking me of this?' Her lips almost twitched into a smile, but it disappeared just as quickly. "We recently got our hands on a handful of Orelikon documents detailing everything from smuggling of contraband metals to illegal weapons testings"

"Orelikon is of course denying everything"

Oh...that's big alright. "What kind of weapons testings?" There were some things that just weren't supposed to be used, in my opinion that includes most biological and chemical weapons. Those were brutally efficient, and difficult to defend against.

She gave a sight "Kemical, some kind of nerve agent. And there was a...a mention of something called a null bomb?" she looked at me questioningly.

"No clue, but i could ask around" Wasn't exactly reassuring but what could i do?

She gave me a small smile "Would be lovely, just...don't be too public about it okay?"

I nodded, i did know a few people who might have some information, it would cost me though, not in money but information. It was far from legal but but this seemed a bit too big to not take the risk. However, now wasn't the time.

"Anyway siss...I'm not going to spend any more of your time, i got some work that needs to be done, and by the looks of it, so do you" I said gesturing the her desk.

"Yeah" she gave a small pause while looking at her desk "your right"

She took a step forward and pulled me in for a hug, I gladly obliged and wrapped my arms around her. I slowly caressed her back, as we just stood there, both silently enjoying eachothers company. After what i presumed was a few minutes i broke the silence "A mission came up, I'll be leaving within the hour".

She was silent for a while "What kind of mission?"

I sighed "Escort mission, we expect hostiles though exact numbers are unknown".

She pulled away slightly while still holding her hands on my shoulders, she gave a weak smile "Be careful okay?"

I smiled at her and pulled in for another hug while whispering "I will, don't worry".

After a few seconds i pulled away and said "I'll give you a call once im done"

She nodded "I'll await you call then", I gave her a last smile before turning around and walked out, closing the door behind me and turning left down the corridor towards hanger 12 were the ships were docked.

* * *

The hangar was a long well lit rectangular room with gray steel walls big enough to fit a handful of Battlecruisers in it. To his left was the hangar control tower, keeping track of the traffic and cataloging every ship that docked in the station.

The hangar itself was split into 8 landing pads and since this hangar was for the naval forces, there were some expanded cargo bays with dedicated personal in case of emergency. He spotted his ship on landing pad 5, currently being loaded with siege tanks and small caliber artillery cannons.

It was a relatively new ship. An Assault cruiser by design. it was decently armored, especially at the front and sides of the hull. Additional vanadium plating to reinforce key points like the reactor, crew quarters, torpedo storage, cargo bay and bridge as well as a new prototype shield projection system that proved to be more than capable of withstanding hits, even from large calibre weapons.

When it came to armaments it had four, state of the art torpedo launchers, with military grade Tandem-Plasma warheads. He remembered when they got them installed. Most of the gunners, were like kids at Christmas eve, talked about all the specifics, and he had to admit, It was a guilty pleasure of his as well. Weapons and armour always interested him, the amount of destruction you could cause with such a small thing.

The missile itself was a 1400 millimeter LRASM, long range anti-ship missile, with long range in underline. The shear power behind on of the those warheads was astonishing, with a well aimed hit it could melt through the armour of a battlecruiser in a single hit.

Unfortunately was using them at close range like dancing with death, hitting was much easier of cause, but the molten metal and shrapnel resulting from the explosion was just as likely to cause damage to you own ship. The tandem part meant it was a duel charge warhead, first charge detonating sending the primary charge through the armour. The plasma charge would then detonate inside the ship, causing extensive damage to the much weaker internal parts of the ship.

On the top and bottom of the hull were the medium range weaponry. It consisted of a series of 380 milometer railguns launching tungsten sabot rounds at several kilometers per second.

The shells didn't contain any explosives but they had a tendency to rip things apart, besides, due the the amount of energy behind the shells they often punched a hole clean through most smaller ships, opening them up to empty space and possibly hitting critical systems on the way. That being the main reason he prefered them to the raw power of laser weaponry.

The cherie on top was the point defence system, small auto cannons scattered around the ship firing a 800 rounds a minute using airburst ammunition that could neutralize most missiles before it even got near the ship.

Looks wise it was a roughly 400 meters long and pointy hull, narrow and angular with no obvious weak spots. Weapons were scattered around the hull making it able to effectively engage hostiles from all angels, while the torpedo launchers were placed in the back to minimize the chance of getting hit by enemy fire. The ship was colored black with some silver lines stretching along the hull, that when put together, gave it a quite intimidating look, the name Majestic was written with red paint on the side.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard a familiar voice shouting across the bay "You have 10 minutes to get yourself onboard and ready, i repeat 10 minutes till takeoff!"

Straight ahead of me, near the boarding ramp, stood no other than Sergeant Gaius Warfield, a two meters tall, dark skinned, broad shouldered man in his late forties. Warfield was one of my handpicked people, the man was a hardened soldier and a born leader.

As he got within shooting range I did just that "Warfield!", he turned around spotted me and gave a quick nod, as acknowledgement. "Lieutenant" he added as I got closer. "We should have been ready to leave by know" I remarked, while gesturing to the people and siege tanks still being brought on board the ship. He looked at them as well, a small snear on his face.

"Aye we should, but someone neglected to mention they sent a third of our vehicles to the workshop for refitting, so I had to make some last minute calls to get some replacements".

So, not his fault then, would've been surprised if it was, it was unlike Warfield to make mistakes like that, or, thinking about it, any mistakes at all.

I looked back at him "Well done, we have little time to spare for delays". He nodded again "Thank you sir, the infantry battalions are ready and strapped in, same goes for the artillery company and the... is something wrong?"

I had the weirdest feeling..I couldn't quite place it, it _felt_ like someone was staring at me. I got a sudden feeling of dizziness that disappeared as soon as it came. I blinked rapidly a few times before i looked around, not sure what for.

"I'm not sure..." The ship was clear, same goes for the entrance to the hangar, I scanned the crowd of people bustling around on the landing pad.

I got eye contact with someone, a woman. For barely a second before she looked away. "Who is she?" i asked with a clear frown on my face. If I had to describe her, I would say the definition of natural beauty, flawless face, light brown hair flowing down her back, perfect body.

He followed my line of sight "I believe she's part of the science team that's joining us, not sure why she's not onboard yet"

That would explain it...somewhat, something still felt off. I shock my head dismissing it for now "Get the rest of the men ready and meet me in the armory for a briefing after takeoff"

"Roger that" He said before giving me a nod and walking off towards a tank that seemed to have stopped on its way towards the ship.

I sighed to myself before walking up the ramp and into the ship.

* * *

The door to the bridge split open and I walked inside without missing a step. It was decent sized rectangular room, crewed monitors along the side and a big multipurpose holographic display in the middle. currently showing a live model of the ship.

A few people looked up from the screens to see who the new arrival were, before returning their focus once again to the monitors. The captain, a old man named Bjorn was looking at the data from the display.

I stopped besides him, barely waiting a second before asking for the status.

"So, how does it look?" I didn't expect anything to be amiss, the ship had never had any major issues, there were the occasional circuits that got fried once in a while but that was about it.

"Everything seems to be in order" he replied shortly. "Sweet, would hate for the ship to break apart ones we leave the dock" I said while turning around and walking towards the window. Under normal circumstances like now it was open. But in case of combat, reinforced blast doors would be activated, Essentially turning the bridge into a bunker, with vision instead being provided by various cameras around the ship. the bridge itself was placed in the back of the hull, with windows providing a nice view around the ship.

It was mostly used for stargazing or looking at other pretty things in space. Most military engagements had several thousands of kilometers of empty space between the ships, making it impossible to see anything without the use of advanced optics and scanning equipment.

Every single weapon system on the ship was the same in that regard, using advanced scanners and target computers to hit enemy vessels.

"So, Bjorn. What's the plan of engagement?". Bjorn was a man in his late sixties, a man who had dedicated most of his life to the navy.

To become a captain you have to go through a lot of training, theory and simulations alike.

But theory is one thing, experience is something else entirely. Bjorn had both, and he suspected that the man already had thought of nearly every possible scenario and made plans accordingly.

The only reason he wasn't stationed on a battlecruiser was because of his age. As far as he was aware the man had no real family or relatives, his life was pretty much the navy.

For that reason he took his job very seriously, he rarely made mistakes and hated to be bossed around. I suspected that was why he spent most of his time on the ship, there he was the captain, there he was the one giving out orders.

"We spend 30 minutes catching up, then we escort the transports and hopefully, that will be it." He grumbled, positive as always.

"But" he continued "If everything goes to hell and we have to fight our way out, i expect you to secure the package on the ground for extraction"

"That's what im here for" I replied

He have a short nod before turning his attention back towards the display were he pressed a button to open coms with the hangar control tower.

"Marginis station this is Majestic, requesting permission to undock" there was a short pause before the comms returned to life "Copy that Majestic, permission granted". With that he gave a signal with his hand and the engines roared to life, the ship started ascending a few meters before the thrusters pushed the ship forwards.

As they left the hangar there was half a second of weightlessness before the gravity accelerator kicked in. It was quite a miracle invention, artificial gravity. Not as strong as what you would find on most habitable planets but it got the job done, some people did however still have problems with gravity sickness. Almost everyone one the ship had been traveling through space regularly for the past many years. There were new recruits of course, and it wasn't unheard of that someone would spend the entire trip with a bucket in front of them.

He returned his gaze to one of the windows giving vision to the back of the ship, and the station in this case. Seeing it from the outside makes one realize why it's sometimes referred to as a citadel. The shear size made it block out most of the horizon.

It was nothing like battlecruisers which were sometimes referred to as a flying cities with crews raging from four to seven thousand people depending on the class. This was more like a small country, a true monument of power and ingenuity.

It was somewhat disc shaped but thinner at the edges while getting more and more bulky towards the center, with two massive spires in the middle reaching several kilometres into space. You could see thousands of ships flying around the station.

Massive billboards could be found here and there showing news and advertisements. inside was everything from factories to shopping malls. And that's not even mentioning the military importance of such a place, the armour and weaponry the station possessed made a fleet of battlecruisers pale in comparison. It was a colossal 176 kilometres long and almost 15 kilometres height at the center, not counting the spires. The unrivalled versatility of the station made it a solid base of operations.

With the distant sun casting shadows across the station, it was a truly breathtaking view.

"Prepare the warp drive" called Bjorn.

For as long as it lasted.

I turned around and walked towards the door to the bridge, it would only take about 30 minutes to catch up with the transports and I had a briefing to do

* * *

The halls of the ship were mostly empty, save for a few crew members. Stale air and cold steel walls, with the occasional pipe and wires was all there was to experience on my walk.

Luckily the trip was short, I did prefer to have my feet planted firmly on the ground instead of on a ship in space. Not that I was afraid of flying, but I felt more in control when on solid ground.

Once I was at the entrance to the armoury I pressed the button and the reinforced door glided open. As I walked in I took note of my surroundings, the room was big but even so it was filled the the brim with vehicles and ammunition, the delayed arrival of the tanks meant that they hadn't had the time to move them to the dedicated storage rooms. There were still a few people moving things and preparing the tanks but I ignored them as I turned left towards a room with a sign reading "Briefing". As I opened the door I was hit with a wall of noise.

The room was already filled with people, most were seated, some were standing, but somehow, every single person in the room was talking. The room was rektangular, with a screen at one end, two doors at the back and a path splitting the rows of chairs through the middle.

The room wasn't big enough to fit every soldier on board, only a about 60 were present, they would in turn brief their troops personally after this.

I made my way towards the screen, today it would serve the purpose of a map. As i got there some of the people in the front stopped talking, already knowing the briefing was about to start.

I picked up the microphone and placed it on the collar of my uniform.

As the first people stopped talking the rest quickly followed suit and soon the room was silent.

"Thank you" i added.

I took a second to look around the room, officers, platoon commanders, lieutenants, a solid mix of people with all kinds of different specialties. He spotted Warfield, standing tall among a few fellow soldiers, the man had grown to become quite an idol for some of the troops, new as well as old.

I nodded to myself before starting to speak "The mission as it stands is simple, we take the shuttles to the surface of Awe, get the package and extract." By the way he talked he made sure to make it obvious that there was a 'butt' at the end.

"But, we're not here because the mission is peaceful, we're here because we expect that Northspire is going to make a presence" I made a small pause "Numbers and composition is currently unknown, that's why we've prepare for a bit of everything"

I moved a bit to the side as the screen turned to life behind me, showing a birds eye view of the mining colony and the nearby city.

I clicked once on the remote in my hand and a marker appeared on a spot just outside the colony.

"We're going to land here, infantry in drop pods, vehicles and artillery in drop ships" I gestured to the screen "And from there we'll make our way into the colony" "33rd and 34th Infantry company, you'll make your way around here to secure the storage houses were the package is thought to be located"

*Click* "14th armour battalion as well the the rest of the 30th battalion is going the spread out and secure this area, *click "As well as provide support for the infantry here"

"We take positions in the hills and houses along this route while we push through the city, in and out before anyone knows what's going on"

I clicked again, and the screen went dark, signalling that it was the last picture.

"As simple as it gets" I turned to face the crowd of people, "Anyone not mentioned will be in the reserves ready to deploy should we have the need" I finished.

"Any questions?" I waited a few seconds, the room was silent, a few people shocked their heads. "Well in that case get out and get yourself ready, we'll be on site in less than twenty".

I looked at were Warfield was standing, caught eye contact and gesture to him that I wanted to have a word outside, he gave a slight nod to show he understood. With that done, I threw the remote onto a table to my right and then started making my way out of the room, ignoring the bustling of seats behind me. when I got out of the room I walked straight to the right towards a staircase that led to a raised platform on top of the briefing room.

As I got up I took a place at the railing watching the marines getting geared up and ready. Soon the armoury would be filled with the sounds of marching marines in all their armoured glory as they made their way to the drop pods.

They would get launched towards the ground with vehicles and artillery soon to follow in the drop ships once the area was secured, drop pods were quick, hard to track, armoured and nearly impossible to shoot down, which made them ideal for missions like this, quickly in and out.

Extraction would be done using the drop ships the vehicles arrived in and once the area was secured anti aircraft weapons could easily be neutralized to allow for a safe evacuation.

I heard the clinking sounds of boots on metal and looked right to see Warfield approaching.

"Sir, you asked for me" He said as he stopped a few metres from me.

I turned my head to look at him "That i did, I'm putting you in charge of the 30th". That caught him off guard, for less than a second before before his face returned to its usual stoic expression, though he did give a nod "Thank you sir".

I took a step back from the railing

"You stand for promotion ones this is done, consider this a final test"

He knew i wouldn't give him the assignment unless i thought he was ready, there was more at stake than promotions and fancy medals. It's was about knowledge and the ability to use it effectively in combat.

He seemed to rise up to the challenge, taking a deep breath and rolling his shoulders "Consider it done sir". I gave him a half smile "You're dismissed".

He gave a quick salute before making his way down stairs. I was about to walk to my room to armour up when I saw someone walk past Warfield up the stairs.

I got a weird feeling, the man was already in his suit so very little of his body was visible. His face was average, short beard, trimmed hair brown eyes, nothing that stood out.

The million dollar question was what he was doing up here instead of with his group.

He walked straight towards me, looking quite confident. I looked at him expectantly "And who might you be?".

"Corporal Serpets, i'm in your squad" I blinked a few times...that was unexpected. "Says who?" It might have come out a bit rude, but my squad consisted mostly of a few handpicked people, people i knew i could rely on.

"General's orders" He said while handing me a piece of paper. General's orders...this guy had must have friends in high places. He scanned the paper...Well if the General wanted him in his squad there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. "Need of combat experience eh?"

I looked up from the paper, "Welcome to the team Lieutenant, be ready at drop pod 12 in 10 minutes" I said as i handed him back the paper, he gave i quick salute before he left as well. I stood there for a few seconds, wondering why the hell someone would want to be here of all places.

Shock my head, 'there would be a time for questions like that' I thought, right know I needed to get myself ready.


End file.
